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“Get him!” Those are the last words that leave Zhao Yunlan’s mouth as he disappears in the wormhole and Shen Wei doesn’t have the time to wonder, to think because if he doesn’t act now Zhao Yunlan might disappear forever.
So he runs forward, grabs Ye Zun’s arm and pulls both of them into the wormhole, before it disappears.
Instead of landing somewhere, they are in the corridor between dimensions, outside of time and space. Zhao Yunlan is nowhere to be seen.
“Are you completely mad?” Ye Zun hisses and Shen Wei looks at him in surprise, he has almost forgotten the company he dragged with him, too caught up in his worry.
“No. This is your doing and I cannot let you disappear,” he replies and wonders if he will have to fight Ye Zun here and now, will he even be able to? He’s been here a few times while portalling to remote areas but he’s never had the time to check the properties of this place. Can he even fight here?
He looks at Ye Zun who is still wearing the mockery of Shen Wei’s civilian identity. Once upon a time, Ye Zun could probably mimic him perfectly, but now their prolonged lack of contact makes itself known – no wonder Zhao Yunlan didn’t fall for the disguise. Only the face looks the same and yet it is twisted in an emotion Shen Wei hasn’t seen on his own – deep hatred.
“Of course! Of course, your precious Haixingren gave you an order so you obey!” Ye Zun spits out, fury burning in his eyes.” ‘Hei Pao Shi, the hero of Haixing’, please. You are just a collared dog of SID.”
Before Shen Wei can reply, the space around them shimmers and he can see Zhao Yunlan save young Shen Wei’s life ten thousand years prior. The space offers them insight into what happened to Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei watches himself fall in love all over again. Ye Zun stays mysteriously silent by his side. Even he isn’t reckless enough to use his powers here and despite his anger, he seems fascinated.
They watch the events unfold, the months of gathering intel, fighting the rebels, searching for Hallows. But there are moments Shen Wei doesn’t remember, bits and pieces from the rebel camp and suddenly, he sees the hood fall from the young rebel’s face and sees a younger, terrified Ye Zun.
“You weren’t the leader from the beginning.” Shen Wei observes out loud, trying to make sense of everything he thought he knew about his final divide with his twin. “What did that man do to you?”
Ye Zun next to him sneers. “Now you care! You had years, millennia to ask me that.”
“You didn’t want to talk to me when I came to you, you never replied. And then when you eventually did, you only told me how much you hated me and how much you longed to destroy Haixing.” He replies and turns his attention back to Zhao Yunlan who is living through Shen Wei’s most treasured memories.
Ye Zun watches too, again, surprisingly silent.
The vision shows them a young Shen Wei tell his deepest wound, the loss of his brother to the first person that noticed the wound being there and Ye Zun gasps so loudly that Shen Wei has to tear himself away from the vision and look at him.
“You didn’t abandon me?” Ye Zun asks in a small voice, tears in his eyes and Shen Wei can feel the path he perceived ahead of them shift and change its course.
*
When Zhao Yunlan re-emerges from the past with Shen Wei and Ye Zun in tow, with a new knowledge regarding the mess they are currently immersed in, the first thing he does is to slip the dark energy-suppressing cuffs on Ye Zun. Da Qing doesn’t question it, too relieved to see them back after two days, but he eyes their recent enemy warily. Zhao Yunlan would really appreciate if this calm could be sustained until the rest of the team arrives.
“We need to talk and I need you not to eat me and my team during that talk.” He says and ignores the fury directed at him. Instead of walking away however, Ye Zun sits down at the couch, right next to Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan can see the anger for what it really is – uncertainty. Seeing the events he thought he knew from the new perspective shook him a bit and though still rather mean-spirited, he followed Shen Wei to the main area of SID.
Zhao Yunlan leaves the twins for now. He and Shen Wei will have to Talk TM because really, time travel of all things, but there are more pressing concerns – he orders a very confused Wang Zheng and Sang Zan to phone the rest of the team and bring them back to SID as soon as possible. If they have to fight their way in they will, he knows, but he would really like it if at least this part of the plan went smoothly.
He sits on the table in front of Shen Wei and Ye Zun and waits. He can now appreciate the twin expressions of mild confusion on their faces, though each one tries to hide it differently – Shen Wei with professional detachment, Ye Zun with a condescending smirk.
Moments like these really called for a smoke. Or a lollipop, but apocalypse is nigh and he has neither so he simply watches two most powerful Dixingren in existence sit uncomfortably on the couch in front of him, wondering why they are here.
As the members of SID trickle in in various disguises, they all eye Ye Zun with worry but say nothing, probably sensing that the matter is urgent. And maybe the handcuffs put them a bit at ease.
Zhu Hong sits on her usual chair but unlike many other times, she doesn’t start talking with Wang Zheng, she eyes the couch as if expecting an attack from that direction. Fair, Zhao Yunlan supposes.
Lao Chu and Xiao Guo arrive together and normally he would tease them for that but right now is really not the time. Later, later after they’ve dealt with everything, they will get a double dose of teasing.
Da Qing is the last one to arrive because he had been sent for a laptop, which he places on the table next to Zhao Yunlan. His team is really great when they put their minds to it, it’s a shame they don’t do it too often.
He opens up the necessary app on the laptop and waits for the call to connect. A few minutes later, Lin Jing’s face appears on the screen and SID members gasp in surprise.
“Way to blow my cover boss!” Lin Jing complains, but his voice has the cheerful note to it so Zhao Yunlan knows he picked up in a secure location.
“We have a slight change of plans and we need you up to date with all the facts.” Then, he looks at his expectant team.
“Oh, right, Lin Jing is a mole, but ours in the lab and I had to fire him with style so that they would take him back, I will apologize for lying to you later. Now, Wang Zheng, could you bring the whiteboard closer?”
The ghost gives him a startled look but obeys.
“So, you probably wonder why I gathered you in this room!” He begins and Zhu Hong and Lao Chu groan loudly. Ye Zun’s scowl deepens. Shen Wei is the only one who seems uplifted by Zhao Yunlan’s good cheer.
“For a long time we believed that our main goal is to defeat Ye Zun.” Here, he gestures to the guest of honour whose expression now borders on murderous.” But, before he jumps at me to murder me without his powers and before you murder him, I think we should consider all the options. Like an alliance for example.”
He pauses. He knows his people well enough to anticipate the shouting and indignation that follows.
“Are you mad? What happened to you these two past days?” Zhu Hong exclaims and Da Qing back her up with “Here, check if he’s been brainwashed or something.” But Zhao Yunlan only smiles at them and takes in the surprise on Shen Wei’s face. Ye Zun’s flabbergasted face however is what makes him laugh out loud.
“Settle down, kids. To answer your questions, no, I’m not brainwashed, no, I haven’t gone mad from what I know and I definitely didn’t decide that becoming an Evil Overlord is my new dream. But! I think we’ve all learnt a lot during this last year and one of the things we definitely excel in at this point is looking for reasons. So, Ye Zun, the floor is yours. What is your goal?”
Ye Zun looks at him in surprise, so taken aback by the question that he forgets to put on his anime villain airs.
“No one ever asked…” He says quietly and Zhao Yunlan’s eyes move involuntarily to look at Shen Wei, who is already looking back at him. Later, he reminds himself and looks back at Ye Zun.
“I’ve been… I thought I was abandoned.” Before Zhao Yunlan can interrupt him and ask if all of his reasons to instigate a rebellion were personal ‘I want my brother to suffer’, Ye Zun seems to gather his wits and looks up defiantly at him.
“The situation in Dixing is unacceptable! No time, no sunlight, no future, only darkness while you people of Haixing thrive. The only ones who can dream of anything more are the ones who managed to escape upside and this cannot continue. We will take back the surface we’ve been banished from! We deserve the same chance to live as you do! Just because we can do more, just because we have additional talents, doesn’t mean we should be kept underground like criminals! You cannot imprison people for crimes they haven’t commited yet!’ Zhao Yunlan can appreciate a good drama and Ye Zun would make an excellent actor in a historical flick. Give him a bit of make up and he can go on and shout that they could take his life but they would never take his freedom or something. However, underneath the drama and pathos, Ye Zun is right.
“And let’s stop here. You see, while I definitely do not agree with Ye Zun’s methods, he has a point.” This time SID surprises him by staying completely quiet. Maybe they are collectively reeling from shock.
Zhao Yunlan decides to press on. He jumps off the table and goes to the whiteboard.
“Let’s look at the motives and reasons for the situation so far.” He says, his tone slipping from light-hearted to serious, like it usually did while they analysed a new case.
“The first problem we have is Ye Zun” He writes the name on the whiteboard and ignores the snort made by the Dixingren in question. “Abandonment issues, cannibalistic tendencies and dramatic flair aside, Ye Zun is a powerful enemy who has a great mass of followers. Why does he have them?”
“Brainwashing.” Da Qing offers.
“Using people's pain against them.” Zhu Hong adds.
“Threats and manipulation.” Lao Chu supplies, glaring at Shen Wei’s brother, his arm thrown protectively around Xiao Guo.
“All of the above” Lin Jing says, probably still thinking about Sha Ya.
“How dare you!” Ye Zun starts but Shen Wei catches his arm and makes him sit down again.
“Good job team, I am all for shaming our resident cannibal for his life-choices and we will have plenty of time to do that in the future but there is a more complicated reason.” Here, he writes point #2 on the board ‘Dixing’.
“As our rebel leader said, the situation in Dixing is rather horrible. Having seen it for myself, I cannot fault anyone for wanting to escape. No schools, no hospitals, no fields. There are people there who have never eaten a fruit before. There are people who have never seen the daylight. No flowers, no animals, just darkness and unmoving clocks.” He is aware that Shen Wei’s eyes are on him and he is almost afraid to see what emotion is directed at him with such intensity. He is afraid that if he looks, he will not look away. So he soldiers on.
“We could start small and help any way we can, but our lovely employer who ordered a manhunt on all of us really doesn’t want to help and definitely doesn’t want Dixingren to have equal rights and opportunities.” Here, Zhao Yunlan adds the #3 on the whiteboard’The Ministry’. “Anything I’m missing?”
“The evil serum my mentor is preparing.” Lin Jing says from the laptop and Zhao Yunlan obediently adds a #4 ‘Illegal experiments’.
“Right, so those are the problems we have to deal with. How do we do that?” Da Qing and Lao Chu open their mouths and knowing what’s coming, he intervenes,” No, we are not murdering Ye Zun. I know, it is tempting and I am sure he would like to return the courtesy and we could have an epic fight to death here, in the middle of SID but if we forget his crimes for a moment, just for the sake of the discussion, he is not the biggest problem we have, no offense.”
Ye Zun’s face suggests that he takes full offense, but he still stays quiet. Zhao Yunlan is not sure what exactly Shen Wei talked with him about as they waited for him to finish up the whole Kunlun business but apparently it was important enough for Ye Zun to stay.
“Lao Zhao, you want us to what, solve the thousand years conflict on our own? We don’t have the power to change the people’s minds about the Dixingren overnight, can we?” Da Qing asks and damn, the cat has a point. But maybe the public opinion could wait.
“I think we can help a different way. Xiao Guo’s uncle seems rather reasonable and more open-minded than our current Minister and our Superintendent. What is more, we have the Hallows – if they can do things I’ve seen them do so far, they should be able to bring light to Dixing. So on one hand, we improve life down there, on the other, we change things a bit above and see where that takes us.” Everyone just stares at them as if Zhao Yunlan proposing coup d’état never crossed their minds. That’s on them really, fools.
“We would have to find and then light up the Guardian Lantern.” Shen Wei says. “ It probably won’t have a wick and we do not have anyone with white energy that could light it up without the additional cost…” Here, Shen Wei trails off and Zhao Yunlan knows what he’s just realized.
“Oh, if only we had here someone who took white energy into their body in hopes to use it later as a finishing move…” He soaks in Shen Wei’s astonishment.
“Xiao Wei, I am easily distracted but not stupid. I will yell at you about this stupid plan of yours later, but for now – do you think you could transfer white energy into the lantern?”
Shen Wei ponders this for a moment.
“I think so.”
“Great, and now comes the important part, do not dare to lie to me – can you do this without any harm to yourself?” Shen Wei’s expression does something complicated, torn between worry, guilt and something Zhao Yunlan is unsure how to name.
Whatever Shen Wei wants to say is interrupted by Ye Zun’s groan.
“Can we stop this star-crossed lovers routine? I can help with white energy.” He says and Zhao Yunlan looks at him in surprise.
“What? You said it yourself, it’s for Dixing. I don’t have to like all of you to see that it might work.”
“Ok, so we are stopping this plan now. If he agrees then it is a bad plan.” Zhu Hong says, her eyes flashing red.
“He is an expert in energy.” Zhao Yunlan counters and Zhu Hong directs her glare at him.
“Because he eats people!”
“Exactly! And because I eat people as you say, I have had my fair share of white energy to work through in my body, I can deal with it better than… Hei Pao Shi.” Nobody seems to notice the uncertainty at the end, as if Ye Zun is not sure how to call his brother, but Shen Wei turns to him with warmth in his eyes.
“Perfect! As for the change of power, we will need the Yashou – I think it’s time a new Yashou Leader is elected.” Here, Zhao Yunlan looks at Zhu Hong who startles.
“But the root…!”
“Will sprout if you hold it, I guarantee it.” He assures her and Zhu Hong looks suddenly so vulnerable, so young. Zhao Yunlan is reminded of her first days at SID and he is hit with realization that he hasn’t seen her like this in quite a long time. She’s grown so much during her time here that he almost forgot how she used to be.
“You are one of very few Yashou who wants the races to work together. Who else? Who else has the experience and knowledge, who else has the compassion to do it?” He smiles at her and something like determination crosses her face.
“Just for the record, I totally agree with our Chief, you’ll be great Hong-jie, but we need to cut this meeting short, my mentor is going to look for me so what do you plan to do about the lab?” Lin Jing asks from the laptop and Zhao Yunlan quickly goes back to the business-mode.
“Right, so I think we should divide our forces between the three remaining problems. Dixing – we need to find the last Hallow, light it up, bring all of them to Dixing and make them work their magic. I think me, Shen Wei and Ye Zun can handle this, if the Palace tries to resist, Ye Zun can eat the Regent, as a treat.” He ignores the offended shouts and Ye Zun’s surprised snort and moves on.
“Next, the Ministry – With Zhu Hong as the leader of Yashou they can come to pressure the Minister to change the policies regarding Dixing immigrants. If that doesn’t work, we take the Minister and Superintendent Zhao, arrest them and forcefully replace them with Minister Guo. If you have to arrest my dad, please call me, I need to be there, in fact, I think I should do this, it would be very therapeutic. Da Qing, Lao Chu – go to the ministry and wait for Zhu Hong and her people to arrive and be ready to act, everyone keep in contact at all times, no sleeping on the job Damn Cat.”
Da Qing makes an offended yowl which means that the team is over their initial shock at having to work with Ye Zun of all people. Zhao Yunlan turns to the laptop.
“The lab – here comes the exciting part, we are going to steal the serum. And by ‘we’ I mean our own Xiao Guo! He can request to visit his uncle, make sure to meet him accidentally somewhere, and do whatever you can to get the serum out of the lab. If you manage to destroy it and all the notes connected to it – all the better.” He stops himself because Lin Jing’s smile turned manic.
“Can I accidentally set the lab on fire?” Their resident mad-scientist asks and he would really, really love to say ‘yes’ because that would cause a real problem to the assholes at the Haixing Ministry, but he has to look at the bigger picture.
“No, because they will evacuate the Ministry and we need them to be there to negotiate or to arrest. I appreciate the thought though.” Lin Jing mutters something under his breath but nods and ends the connection.
“Wang Zheng and Sang Zan, we need you to defend SID for as long as possible because we still need to find some clues here and we are running out of time – they will come looking for us soon. The traps you’ve used before – use them now. Call Cong Bo, maybe he will be willing to help you via CCTV, he has bugged us so many times I’d be surprised if he’s not already listening to this conversation.”
The ghosts nod and for a moment everything is silent.
Suddenly the gravity of everything they need to do hits him. He has no idea what kind of consequences they will face if any part of the plan fails but this is their best bet. And they can do this, he knows they can. Ten thousand years ago a handful of Yashou, Dixingren and Haixingren managed to work together. The world they’ve created wasn’t perfect but it was a start, it was a proof that cooperation is possible. And now SID will prove the same.
He finally looks at Shen Wei and for the first time in months sees something like hope in his eyes. Not the grim, 'hoping for the least tragic outcome' kind of hope either, no, a true, genuine hope for a better tomorrow. A hope young Shen Wei used to have.
Zhao Yunlan is happy to see it after all this time.
*
When he returns from the Yashou meeting having helped Zhu Hong win her position as the new leader, Ye Zun and Shen Wei are in the middle of a staring contest, an old lamp on the table between them, both brothers positioned on far ends of the table. The ghost made themselves scarce, probably booby-trapping the building or simply avoiding the main area because of the brotherly conflict unfolding in the middle of the room.
“You are not taking it all. This is my responsibility.” Says Shen Wei, his tone deceptively patient, which means he has repeated this particular message quite a few times already.
“And I told you that you don’t have to trust me but I am better equipped to channel energy into it. What do you think I’m going to do with the Lantern?”
“Didi, I simply worry.” That is a low blow because Ye Zun visibly recoils. “We still have so much to talk about and I would hate for you to hurt yourself in a rush to right a wrong, even if it was caused by your actions.”
“Okay, let’s stop here.” Zhao Yunlan says before this lovely heart-to-heart can escalate. He understands Shen Wei needs to shield his brother from the consequences of his actions but looking at the facts objectively, Ye Zun has better chances of surviving the ordeal. It’s simple as that. Yes, it requires them to trust Ye Zun but saving the world is supposed to be a gamble, or so claim all the movies Zhao Yunlan has seen.
“I agree with Ye Zun. He is in a better state because he hasn’t been poisoning himself for months and he does have experience when handling different masses of energy. And I know you feel responsible for everything around you Xiao Wei, so forgive me, but I am going to use it against you.” He stands right next to the love of his life and thankfully, Shen Wei turns to him, his eyes strangely vulnerable.
“I say this with utmost conviction – I will not outlive you. If you do something stupid and die for a greater cause I will follow you. And that is not an empty threat – I know you would do the same so you can’t begrudge me this selfishness. You tied our lives together when you healed my eyes so it is fitting that mine should end with yours. Is it worth the risk?” He knows it is a bit underhanded, he would hate to be in Shen Wei’s position just now, but it is necessary. Because Shen Weihas been preparing himself to die for months and he needs to know that dying has consequences as well.
He beholds the warring emotions crossing Shen Wei’s face and waits.
He feels Ye Zun move to stand behind him, waiting for the decision. Theirs is a definitely broken relationship and there is still the problem of bringing Ye Zun to justice for his crimes to consider in the future but the Dixingren have long life-spans and since Ye Zun is still here, there is hope for the two to reconcile.
Finally, Shen Wei closes his eyes and hangs his head in defeat.
“Alright.”
Both Zhao Yunlan and Ye Zun sigh in relief.
*
Zhao Yunlan did not get to arrest Zhao Xinci. Mostly because the man refused to play by the script and both him and Zhang Shi joined Lao Chu and Da Qing in arresting Minister Gao and Professor Ouyang, but otherwise the plan went pretty smoothly.
There is of course the problem of Regent, who also cooperated and gave them no excuse to arrest him or throw him to Ye Zun, and who might be a problem in the future, but Shen Wei assured Zhao Yunlan that he will be able to handle the Regent during the meetings. Because Dixing is to have council meetings now. The curse on the king has been lifted and An Bai turned out to be a rather energetic monarch who decreed monthly meetings of all royal advisors, Hei Pao Shi being one of them.
The Ministry flourishes under Guo Ying’s leadership and new branch of Immigration affairs opens, led by Minister Ye Huo, once known as Fire. It’s all work in the progress of course and Zhao Yunlan has to intervene on almost daily basis and sit through series of very boring meetings about legislation held by the Dixingren, the Yashou and the Haixingren representatives, but at least he sees Zhu Hong there. She is a great leader and she seems to like her role more and more, offering ideas for integrational events. Even Cong Bo helps, preparing materials for the public to ease into co-existence with the Dixingren. This part goes less well than the others, mostly because the public was still reeling from the anti-SID and anti-Dixingren propaganda the Ministry has spewed before when Cong bo started his campaign, but the protests are rather harmless and a lot of people are willing to see reason.
Ye Zun had lost his powers. Pouring all of the white energy from Shen Wei and then transferring it into the Guardian Lantern turned out to be a great strain on his body – he went comatose for two days and when he woke up he had almost no dark energy. Shen Wei theorized that maybe his terrible power awoke because of the trauma he had been subjected to and now his body is renewing the energy naturally and will allow him to have a different, less terrifying power. Zhao Yunlan is not educated enough to argue whether it is possible or it is just Shen Wei’s wishful thinking. Ye Zun remains harmless so far and his punishment seems to be working – instead of sending him to prison (historically speaking, it hasn’t worked and induced him to commit even more crimes) they put him on probation as Zhao Xinci’s assistant and now both men hate the arrangement with passion.
Zhao Yunlan sometimes mutters that even for Ye Zun’s crimes the punishment seems a bit too severe, but Shen Wei usually just smiles. He smiles quite a lot these days.
It took quite some time for him to get better after the white energy poisoning he subjected himself to, but since giving it all to Ye Zun, his body began healing. With the old Treaty nullified, he now has access to all of his powers and that had made all the difference during his recovery.
Life is good. Well, it is better – crimes still happen, in fact a lot of people try to use the chaos of transition to commit felonies and pin them on Dixingren, Yashou or Haixingren respectively, so the SID has a lot of work and had to recruit new officers to somehow keep up, but Zhao Yunlan is not complaining. More work means more money and more money means that he will soon be able to afford the house he’s been eyeing for months.
Once the house is bought, he might proceed with his plan to trap Shen Wei in shared domesticity. Admittedly, they’ve been living in Zhao Yunlan’s apartment together for months and they are still living here now, but a) it’s the gesture that counts and b) it is getting rather crowded, because Da Qing is still a part of this household and Ye Zun drops by frequently enough that he maybe should start paying rent or at least get receipts for meals he eats here.
So, a house.
That’s a good start.
A voice in his head that sounds suspiciously like Da Qing suggests that maybe his ‘I’ll literally die without you’ speech was not the best love confession one could get and that maybe kissing Shen Wei would be an even better declaration of his intent to spend his whole life with the man, but Zhao Yunlan silences it. He’s got this.
Shen Wei totally knows Zhao Yunlan loves him, right? So why repeat himself?
*
Turns out, Shen Wei didn’t know. Somehow he missed all the obvious stuff like Zhao Yunlan’s flirting, his hair-change, living together and all the barely decent stuff Zhao Yunlan said and did in his Kunlun get up. Even the house didn’t clue him in, admittedly.
He finally gets the idea a few months after they move in to their new abode and Zhao Yunlan comes back from work after pulling a three-days long investigation with like, three hours of sleep behind him and collapses right into Shen Wei’s waiting arms with a sigh that turns into a soft ‘I love you’ because he is finally home, right where Shen Wei is and they are all here, alive and well and he’s just so tired and so happy to simply be that it escapes from him unbidden and he almost misses the stiffening of Shen Wei’s body.
“You do?” Shen Wei asks, his voice heavy with emotions and it takes Zhao Yunlan a moment to realize what could surprise Shen Wei so much and… Oh. Oh boy.
Someone who sounds like Ye Zun cackles in the background and there is Da Qing’s patented howl of laughter following but Zhao Yunlan ignores them both because Shen Wei somehow still looks like his brain blue-screened. He is so tired but he needs to make sure, he needs Shen Wei to be sure…
“Have for quite some time, glad we had this talk.” He says in lieu of any good, heartfelt explanation and promptly falls asleep.
The last thing he feels are arms tightening around him and this amazing warmth he associates only with Shen Wei.
They will talk in the morning.
They have time.